Hunter's Trail

She looked up at me quickly, a little startled, and then she whispered something I could barely make out. “Pleased to meet you.” It was the first time I’d heard her voice.

“And I’m very pleased to meet you, Lizzy,” Will said kindly, all trace of exhaustion now gone. “I hope you’ll want to stay within the LA pack, but if there are too many bad memories here, I would be happy to help you find a pack in another city. I want you to feel at home with us, so anything you need, please let me know.” He reached out very slowly, so she would see him coming, and patted her on the shoulder. Lizzy nodded, her back straightening just a little. She glanced at me nervously, and I nodded at her. It’s okay.

“Can I use a phone?” she asked tentatively, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “My family doesn’t know where I am.”

“Of course! It’s important that you don’t tell them about what you are, but you definitely want them to know you’re okay,” Will said amiably. “Let’s do that right now. My cell’s over there on the table. Help yourself.” He pointed to a side table next to where the werewolves were all congregating, and I admired the move. He wanted her to wade into her new pack mates, and for them to accept her. Motivated by the phone, she began stepping through the crowd. Corry, in the center of the werewolf pack, glanced up and smiled at her as she passed, then went back to talking animatedly to Esmé.

Will watched them talk. “The pajamas were actually Corry’s idea, you know,” he said quietly. “Make it look like we were having a pajama party, to explain why we were all together. I don’t know if she intended this or not, but it actually calmed a lot of my people down, to have something kind of silly going on.” He looked at me. “She’s pretty remarkable, isn’t she?”

I smiled proudly. “Yes, she is,” I replied. As if her ears were burning, Corry met my eyes. “Hi,” she mouthed, grinning. “Hi, yourself,” I said back. My gaze traveled past her and spotted Lydia, who was squashed in the corner of a couch, giving me the evil eye. No one was talking to her, or even looking at her. She sat there and scowled for a moment, then tapped her watch so only I could see it. Her message was clear: the clock is ticking. My skin went cold.

I’d almost forgotten. I had eight hours to produce Eli or she’d come after me. It might as well have been eight minutes. I shivered and turned back to the men.

“Have you seen any sign of her?” Jesse was saying to Will.

Will nodded. “It went just like Scarlett predicted. She followed me home, although I pretended I was trying to lose her. She parked across the street until sunset, and then she started sneaking around the outside of the house.”

“Is she still out there?”

He shook his head. “She left about ten minutes before you guys got here.” He frowned. “Since you guys stopped her today, I’m guessing she’s going to come after you next. She’ll want the bargest back, and she’ll want to make you guys pay for humiliating her.”

I looked at Jesse. “I thought we were very respectful. Except for the part where we made her pee herself.”

He just looked at me blankly, uninterested in banter. “Scarlett,” he said quietly. “Can we talk for a second?”

“Uh, sure,” I said, taking a deep breath. The worst was over, and he wanted to finish our talk. I hadn’t expected him to ask right away, but it made sense.

Will herded the outlying werewolves closer to Corry, and they all crowded together in front of the movie. Jesse and I went into the kitchen, where I could still see the group through the open doorway into the den.

Jesse’s eyes searched my face. “At the picnic table, you thanked me like you weren’t planning to take me up on my offer.”

I nodded. “I’m not,” I said simply.

“Why?” he demanded. Then, with an embarrassed smile at the harshness in his voice, he said, “Sorry. I just don’t get it.” He reached across the space between us and added softly, “I’m in love with you.”

I nodded, hitching up my courage. “No,” I said, as calmly as I could manage. “You’re not.” He began to respond, but I held up a hand. “I know, I know. You think you are. I believe that, Jesse. But you’re not in love with me; you’re in love with the version of me that you wish I was.” I absently rubbed the fading burn on my wrist, from when I’d thrown Leah Rhodes’s body into the furnace at the beginning of all this. “You think you’re better than the things that I do, and you want me to be better than them too.”

“So you think I’m, what, a snob,” he said incredulously, “because I don’t believe you should be destroying corpses?”

“I think . . .” I paused, trying to choose my words carefully. “I think that you were right when you said what I really wanted was control of my life. But if I leave LA with you, start somewhere new, that’s not me getting control. That’s just me giving it to someone else.”

He stared at me, wounded. “I don’t want to control you, Scarlett. I love you.”

“How can you,” I said very quietly, “when you don’t really know me?”

He stepped all the way into my personal space, touching my cheek with one warm palm. “You’re wrong,” Jesse said gently. He smelled wonderful, and it took every second of growing up I had done recently to not throw my arms around him.